Best time to go on a Cape Town to Vic Falls tour

The best time go on a Cape Town to Vic Falls tour often relies upon the region you’re looking forward to spending time in the most with Cape Town, Etosha NP and Victoria Falls all featuring varying temperature and rainfall levels as shown in our chart and month by month guide.

Best time to go on a Cape Town to Victoria Falls holiday

temperature & rainfall

These tours depart all years round, so best time to go on a Cape Town to Victoria Falls holiday really depends on how hot you like it. Late November to March are hotter and wetter and can bring thundery bursts of rain that pass quickly but refresh the landscape. It starts getting really hot in October – staying hot, but cooling down gradually until February, with July and August getting quite chilly – think hats and gloves for early morning game drives. The Western Cape, however, is wetter in winter. The peak game viewing season from July to October spans both extremes.

When to travel from Cape Town to Victoria Falls

A MONTH BY MONTH GUIDE

For game viewing, the green season – late November, December, January, February and March – isn’t the best time to visit Botswana as wildlife disperses, although elsewhere there are more young animals present at this time.

Across Southern Africa, in the winter months of June, July and August, animals come out in force as they vie for water holes and foliage struggles to bloom, so a lot of wildlife is easier to spot. In the warmer months, however, you’ll feel a great sense of satisfaction when you do spot something prowling in the bush.

September and October are dry, hot and dusty months with not much in the way of birdlife, but they also bring less vegetation and animals cluter around the available water sources – so it’s much easier to spot wildlife. Bonus: there are also fewer mosquitoes

March is very wet in Botswana and to a lesser extent in Namibia, although rainstorms tend to be confined to afternoon showers, especially as you enter into the month of April. May signals the start of the dry season with clear skies and moderate temperatures.

Conversely, Cape Town has the opposite rainfall patterns. It is wet in winter, with hot, dry and surprisingly windy summers.

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Best time to go on a Cape Town to Victoria Falls holiday

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS

Tom Harari, from our supplier Exodus, shares his advice on the best time to travel from Cape Town to Vic Falls:

“This is a route that can be travelled year round. However there are some periods which are better than others depending on people’s interests. February to May is when Victoria Falls are at their fullest, however all this water means that it’s also the time when wildlife is most scattered. August and September is probably the best time to see wildlife as it’s a lot drier so the animals are more concentrated around watering holes. November to February is arguably the least good time to go as it’s the wet season but to be honest on much of this route, especially in Namibia, wet doesn’t mean that much. Some years the Namib desert breaks out in flowers which is quite a sight.”

Jayne Harley, from our supplier, Sunway Safaris, shares her opinion on the best time to go on a Cape Town to Victoria Falls holiday:

“A lot of literature will tell you the ‘peak’ game viewing period is during winter and the dry months, but I’ve had some of my best game viewing in summer. In winter, the animals do congregate around the water sources and there’s less foliage, so you have a greater depth of view, but generally the peak season extends from July to October and is longer than people first think.”